Usdaw, the shop worker's union, has found that a shocking one in ten of all shop workers has been physically assaulted at work.
In a special survey of its members, the union also found that almost one in three shop workers (29%) has experienced verbal abuse in the last month, and that one in three employees (32%) has been threatened in the last year.
Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett said that this was totally unnacceptible: "Shop workers are all too often assaulted, threatened and abused in the course of their work. They're in a pressurised environment, particularly in the run-up to Christmas time with increased sales and more stressed-out-customers.
"Customers can get very frustrated over long queues or if the item they want is out of stock and they take it out on the shop worker."
Throughout this week Usdaw reps and activists will be staging events in stores throughout the UK to take the campaign to the shopping public. Shoppers will be asked to pledge to "keep their cool at Christmas". The campaign will also lobby MPs to provide more police and Police Community Support Officers to patrol the streets and use monitored CCTV to protect both staff and customers.
Mr Hannet continued, "Another flashpoint for abuse is when customers are asked to prove their age. Usdaw members tell me they've been hit, sworn at and threatened for refusing to serve alcohol and other age-restricted products to a customer."
"We want customers to be aware that shop workers are under a lot of pressure to police the law on age-related sales and can be individually fined if they get it wrong. They are just doing their job, so please carry ID when buying age-restricted goods. And even if things don't go as smoothly as you would like, please show shop workers respect and keep your cool this Christmas."
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